The present invention relates to apparatus for handling and packaging food products, and more particularly to handling and packaging of chip-type food products.
A variety of types of packaging equipment has been available in the past. Chip-type food products, for example, may be inserted into a bag in a random manner merely by dropping the chips through a chute directed into the bag. Such package filling equipment is not suitable for packaging uniformly shaped, nested chips. Packaging of nested chips may be carried out by hand; however, this technique is time consuming and costly. Depositing of uniformly shaped nested chips in the loop array package as disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,852,485 is particularly difficult. The present invention overcomes such difficulties and provides automated equipment for packaging of uniformly shaped, nested snack chips in a loop array.